French Aces of WWI Volumes 1 & 2 Published

[JackH]

Today Aeronaut published French Aces of WWI volume 1 and French Aces of WWI volume 2. These two volumes cover 156 of the 188 French aces with cameos and color profiles of their planes. Each cameo has a photo and the pilot's rank and units together with his victory score. Each pilot has a profile of at least one of his airplanes; however, many pilots have multiple profiles for a total of 520 profiles in the two books.

These books are available now directly from Amazon. And more titles will be coming soon.

All the best,
Jack Herris

[Frank_Olynyk]

Jack,
I have ordered both books, so now I get to ask questions. 156 out of 188 aces? What happened to the other 32? Even if the book is limited to the Western Front, as was the Bailey/Cony War Chronology, I don't think there were 32 aces on the other fronts. Also, you note the ace's victory score, but is this just a number, or a list of victories with dates, types, etc.

Enjoy!

Frank.

[AlbertWarsawPoland]

Frank, check these books on Amazon, you can look at a few pages. The scores are numbers only. There’s also a list of escadrilles where they served. These books are all about profiles. Depends on what you’re looking for. When I read about them I was excited and thought that there will be at least short biographies, so I’m disappointed. As much as I like Aeronaut Books, I don’t think I will ever buy these particular books, they aren’t on my priority list.

[Frank_Olynyk]

Albert,

Rather disappointing. So, a lot of photographic research (and a lack of photos is probably the reason for the missing 32 aces), but no archival research. Thus the list of aces probably depends on the Bailey/Cony, Franks/Bailey and Daniel Porret books. *sigh* But I guess I will still have to buy it; the documentation of the aircraft actually flown may be useful.

Enjoy!

Frank.

[jastaflieger]

Having read the last two posts concerning the new books from my buddy Jack Herris at Aeronaut books i would like to post several comments:
1) What other publisher has been working so hard at producing new WWI aviation books?
2) When you look at the plethora of books Jack has been publishing you will see a variety of books, the series of PLM award winners by Lance, various staffel histories, the staggeringly number and quality of books on lesser known aircraft manufacturers in WWI: any particular book may not be to everyone's liking, or be what they are looking for, but others are looking exactly for that volume
3) Also, outside of the books that Jack writes himself, he has been exceedingly helpful to so many other authors in taking what they send to him and improving that material as best he can: for many of the books he works with what the author provides him.
4) I have been grateful over the years to Jack for sharing my visions of several different types of books and he always made what i sent him better- but he was dependent on what i sent him.
5) I suspect that these current titles were meant to provide photo references and color profiles for model builders and for the artists that have been providing such wonderful WWI aviation themed artwork.
6) If you are looking for a list of French aces and there list of victories with some details provided i would suggest the two volume set by D. Porret entitled LES "AS" FRANCAIS DE LA GRANDE GUERRE, published by Cedocar, ISBN number 2-7170-0741-5: this has been my go-to for "obscure" French aces over the years.
I suspect that Bruno or David could also suggest other references as well.
I would like to say to Jack Herris, keep up the good work, I know you always have several books that you are working on and I am very grateful to your prodigious efforts!!
Perhaps this feedback could lead to some type of very brief descriptive for your books that could suggest which "types" of aviation historian/ enthusiast would find that particular book most useful - scale modelers for example.
Finally, Jack, i am still working on ART OF THE DOGFIGHT, i keep getting new artwork and "having" to expand chapters- still planning for by end of the year.
jim

[Froggy]

Bonjour

On 'amazon' I have used the 'look inside' facility for this book

page 6

1) Marcel Achard never belonged to Escadrille Spa 23

2) The personal insignia here is the insignia of Adj Marcel Villars -escadrille Spa 23- on a Spad XIII not a Spad VII

http://albindenis.free.fr/Site_escad...adrille023.htm

I haven't been further in the book...

Cordialement
Bruno

[Frederic Mason]

All above is excellent news. Will be sure to acquire these volumes as soon as the next crop falls off my money tree. As to fussy requirements - anything that adds to the extent of knowledge is gratefully received in this matter. Seems like a very useful tool to avoid lengthy searching other sources for markings of each man's bird. I'm sure it will be helpful to me. Thanks very much Jack.

[AROTH]

Mine arrived today.

[Frank_Olynyk]

My copies arrived Sunday. The forward notes that these two books are an outgrowth of Anton Zhukov's Russian language book on the French aces of WW1. See here: https://www.labirint.ru/books/655241/ which shows an example page with the kind of information I am interested in; published in 2018. The forward also notes that the original book had only 150 profiles, and these two volumes have about 500 profiles. So I would say that these books are a good place for modelers to use as a reference.

I have asked my friend in Moscow, Viktor Kulikov to get me a copy. He noted that Xhukov has just published the first of two volumes on the German aces A-K; see https://www.labirint.ru/books/748409/ which I have also ordered from Viktor.

Further comments later, when the Russian language book on the French aces arrives.

Enjoy!

Frank.